AIP-230: 'I don't hate apes, I just want them to fund public goods!"

Administrative Review
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Proposal Name: ‘I don’t hate apes, I just want them to fund public goods!”

Category: Ecosystem Fund Allocation

Abstract:

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This AIP provides for $1,000,000 to fund crypto public goods through ETH Global and ApeCoin hackathons. The goal of this proposal is to 1) give back to the Ethereum community; 2) further development work around account abstraction; and 2) introduce developers to ApeCoin

Author Description

I was previously an ApeCoin special council member, serving from March 2022 to December 2022. I previously authored AIP-96, which provided public goods funding for ETHSF and a Gitcoin grants program. You can find me on Twitter @maariabajwa or on the DAO forum @maariab.

Team Description

I will coordinate between ETHGlobal and the Foundation. Judges for each hackathon will be selected from the community, and will primarily rely on more technical persons who can provide support to hackathon participants. Judges for IRL events will be selected from the local communities. For ETHGlobal IRL events, I’d like to request that at least 1 member from the current Special Council be present for each event.

Motivation:

ApeCoin would not be possible without Ethereum. As a public good, Ethereum benefits from shared responsibility and collective appreciation, and the ApeCoin community should make a concerted effort to directly support this ecosystem.

ETHGlobal has been a community staple since 2017 and has introduced THOUSANDS of developers to the ecosystem. It is a staple for fostering ongoing interest in the ecosystem, which includes ERC-20s like ApeCoin. ApeCoin’s first ETHGlobal event was at ETHSF in December - over 35 teams built around APE which was great for driving awareness for our community. We should participate in as many of these events as we can in 2023.

This AIP proposes continued participation in ETHGlobal hackathons in 2023, as well as a one-time donation to the ETHGlobal foundation. Many projects have scaled back their participation in public goods initiatives and hackathons in the bear market which creates challenges for organizations like ETHGlobal. A donation to the foundation ensures that these hackathons can continue operating and supporting the Ethereum and ApeCoin ecosystems.

Account abstraction is a very complex upgrade that requires buy-in from both users and block validators, but if it’s adopted it creates a pathway to much better wallet UX AND better security. AA aims to make every wallet a smart contract wallet, so wallets can natively embed security features such as 2FA, multi-sig, seed recovery, etc directly into the user experience.

Rationale:

Participating in hackathons gets ApeCoin more visibility and encourages developers to build for this community. It also serves as a way for ApeCoin to support public goods and other communities.

The goal of this funding is to increase awareness and adoption of ApeCoin. Success will be measured based on the entire ecosystem’s success. Funding these programs is the best thing the DAO can do for the collective good of crypto (which impacts us).

Key Terms:

  • EthGlobal: organization that operates global hackathons that support the growth and development of the Ethereum ecosystem.
  • Ethereum account abstraction (erc-4337): a proposed Ethereum improvement that aims to simplify the process of creating and managing smart contracts.

Specifications:

ApeCoin DAO will provide $1,000,000 to the following:

  • $300,000 donation to ETH Global
  • $700,000 to participate in 11 ETHGlobal hackathons in 2023
    • 7 IRL events and 4 online events
    • $40k Pillar Tier sponsorship + $10k prize pool per event [packages here 3]
    • $50k in prize matching with Ethereum Foundation for specific initiatives around NFTs, DAOs, zk scaling, and account abstraction (to further our support of public goods initiatives)
    • $50k for operational operational costs related to IRL events including TBD swag bag items, content creation, and travel reimbursements. ETH SF in December was the first hackathon for ApeCoin - pics of the banners and swag bag items we used are below:
      ethsf_swag2
    • ethsf_setting
    • Up to $50k for unexpected operational or prize expenses in 2023. For example, ETHGlobal recently added 1 more IRL event in 2023 with ETHLisbon. This additional buffer will also give us flexibility to participate in more prize matching with the Ethereum Foundation, as those initiatives are formed. This funding will not be called upon or used unless needed, and at the end of the year any unused proceeds will be released back to the DAO.

About ETHGlobal

  • Opportunity to introduce ApeCoin to thousands of developers in 2023
  • ETHGlobal has organized over 40 hackathons around the world since 2017. Over 14k developers have participated in these hackathons, building over 3.3k projects.
    • In 2023, ETHGlobal plans to host 18 events around the world and online. This AIP proposes the DAO participate in 11 events.
  • With Pillar Tier sponsorship, ApeCoin will have up to 5 representatives at the IRL events
    • Every IRL event will recruit 3-4 people from the local ApeCoin community to attend the event and participate in the hackathon judging
  • Judging for online hackathons TBD

Dates [ETHGlobal | Events]

  • 3/10: Scaling Ethereum [Online]
  • 4/14: Tokyo [IRL]
  • 5/12: Lisbon [IRL]
  • 6/23: Waterloo [IRL]
  • 7/21: Paris [IRL]
  • 9/22: New York [IRL]
  • 10/6: ETHOnline [Online]
  • Q4 Devcon [IRL]
  • TBD: Istanbul [IRL]
  • TBD Themed Event [Online]
  • TBD Themed Event [Online]

Prizes for ETHGlobal events will be decided on by 5 judges from the ApeCoin community. Up to 4 APE holders can join me for the IRL events. Please reach out to me if you’re interested in participating.

Steps to Implement:

  1. $300k donation sent to ETHGlobal in USD
  2. $40k in USD sent to ETHGlobal to cover sponsorship fees prior to each hackathon
  3. $10k in APE sent to ETHGlobal to cover prizes at the conclusion of each hackathon
  4. $50k for operational costs will be requested as needed from the Foundation as those expenses are incurred. Receipts will be provided to the Foundation for expense reimbursement.
  5. Events will be coordinated by myself and at least 1 member of the Special Council

Timeline:

First program funded will be Scaling Ethereum in March. Programs will run through EOY.

The Foundation will coordinate with the Ethereum Foundation and ETHGlobal directly to distribute proceeds.

Operational expenses will be reimbursed after they are incurred to ensure the Foundation is covering only relevant expenses.

Each event will require separate coordination for attendees + marketing.

Overall Cost:

The estimated cost of this program is roughly $1,000,000 for 2023.

This includes:

  • $300,000 donated to ETHGlobal
  • $700,000 to sponsor 11 ApeCoin hackathons + at least 5 public goods initiatives
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Thanks for putting this together @maariab. Vitalik’s sentiment, though likely unpopular in the Ape community, echoes those of many, many others I’ve encountered in the space and I think proposals like this are necessary for furthering the image, culture, and global impact of the ApeCoin DAO.

I do see some potential overlap in some areas, as @ssp1111’s current Decentralized Events Network AIP Idea would potentially collaborate with the 11 ETHGlobal hackathon IRL and online events, events for which funding might be separately allocated and need not necessarily draw from the present proposal.

At any rate, I’m fascinated by the scope of this and am looking forward to hearing more on what the community has to say.

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Thank you for leading the initiative for funding public goods @maariab. ETHGlobal gathers some of the brightest minds and to be able to incentivize developers to tap into ApeCoin is a great opportunity. It allows us to zoom out into the larger ETH ecosystem. Looking forward to vote

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Molto Bene!
At some point I wanna create a pod to deploy funds to small businesses, developers and artist as well using ape

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Thanks so much for this proposal @maariab. Love that your putting forth another public goods proposal. I think ETH SF was one of the DAO’s most successful proposals, so it’s great to see you expanding on it!

It would be amazing if the ApeCoin DAO could play a part in figuring out how to do this. I absolutely agree that mainstream adoption won’t happen until this problem gets solved.

If both your and @ssp1111’s proposal, ApeCoinIRL - Decentralized Events Network passes, would love to see coordination between them.

Thanks again for putting this proposal forth!

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Hi @maariab,

Your topic will be automatically closing in about 24 hours. Are you content with the feedback received, or do you wish to extend community discussion for a further 7 days?

If we do not hear from you within 48 hours after your topic closes, your topic will be moved straight to the AIP Draft process.

We look forward to hearing from you.

-Vulkan

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@maariab I love the idea of the APE community collaborating to build out Web3 infrastructure and enhance the ETH network. Great PR and an awesome way to help scale the ETH ecosystem. May want to consider the Blocksee CRM proposal as a way to track ape coin holder count and to help with some of the marketing and engagement tracking for IRL events.

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Vitalek is right. You can’t build an empire or even a functioning civilization without roads and bridges and schools. If Apes invest in those types of things for Web3, like funding interoperability projects, or crypto education, it could help bring in new users and grow the metaverse. We’d love your feedback on our AIP idea for building public infrastructure for Ape projects.

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Hi,

I forgot to add a thought on this - it seems a lot, but without ethereum chain we’d not be here, without advancing it we pretty much stay still in lots of respects, you have to pay to play at the big tables, and thats where talent and connections are made that further helps propel the Apecoin community further and faster than before.

I voted yes to see this progress as I believe Mariaab will do what she sets out to, costs seem very reasonable in relation to what theyll facilitate and really believe we gotta start paying for more of these bigger ideas/costs before Apecoin loses momentum slightly.

GL

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I love the idea of ApeCoin supporting these initiatives – playing a role in the progression of account abstraction would be huge win as we move towards the greater metaverse. Funding public goods is something we should be putting our resources to as well. Seems like a win-win to me, thanks for putting this together!

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This topic was automatically closed after 7 days. New replies are no longer allowed.

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Thank you @maariab for your ideas and the ApeCoin DAO community for the thoughtful discussions. A moderator will get in touch with the author to draft the AIP in the appropriate template. Once the AIP is drafted and meets all the DAO-approved guidelines, the proposal will be posted on Snapshot for live official voting at: Snapshot

Follow this Topic as further updates will be posted here in the comments. @maariab please see your messages for the next steps.

-Vulkan

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I love the idea, tbh need to still get my head around the details, but in principle a big yes from me! I assume if we did this correctly such a move would drive a lot of awareness of ApeCoin within Web3, a donation, but also effective marketing spend!

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We can go either of two ways

  1. either Donate that amount or 2) launch our own Hackathon

Donating money to an existing one makes a lot of sense if we’re hoping to give back to the ecosystem.

What approach do you think suits the DAO best with respect to (1)

• Picking one implementation which we think has an edge over the rest and providing it with grants.
• Hedging our Bets by providing grant to various implementations and let creative destruction run its course. (I personally like this one)

ex : Seedless software and Hardware wallets, using Account Abstraction, Multi party computation or Shamir Secret Sharing

I love the Idea of giving back to the ecosystem, Incentivise the best builders to help solve some of the biggest problems we’re facing.

Quick Question : If we donate the amount directly to the Ethereum Foundation, Will that be representative of the sentiments of the community and how can we ensure that those funds are used appropriately? I’m guessing the latter will be overseen by the foundation’s treasury signatories.

I love the Idea of Account Abstraction, It was a long time coming but I’m Stoked to see its implementations. I am a Big proponent of Incentivising this kinda behaviour

How can we ensure our say in the final decision, which provides our community a much greater level of control over those funds. I’m guessing via the delegate Judging committee you mentioned, just wanna ensure cause Oh boy I’m sleepy af (idk why I only go through AIP’s after I start feeling sleepy)

Now with that out of the Way, Let’s talk about our future plans about (2)

We can launch a Hackathon in the future which aims to develop a tech stack around our ecosystem and we reward the people who come up with the most brilliant implementations (sounds like a fever dream so maybe) :joy:

Would you be willing to expand the MultiSig if the need arises cause of the massive amounts involved. This is in no way a question on your integrity, It’s more of a security concern w.r.t. the user funds. I’ll recommend you be on the lookout for people who’d love to contribute, take @ssp1111 for example.

PS : If ApeCoin DAO decides to have an irl presence at ETH India, I’ll be there Deff

TLDR : Ranting about how big of a Yes this is for me

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Thanks a lot for spinning this up @maariab ! I love the idea of using hackathons to establish a brand within the developer community and also do honestly believe the marketing value (bang for buck) is among the highest in our industry - we can even ask these hackathons to include challenges to solve for ApeCoin DAO or grant specific prize pools for that!

On the donation to EF I am a bit sceptical we couldn’t use those funds better and whether it would make a difference to EF at all.

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Hi ApeCoin DAO Community,

@maariab has completed editing their AIP Idea to be their AIP Draft.

Follow this Topic as further updates will be posted here in the comments.

Kind Regards,

-Vulkan

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Happy to see the ask is half of what I initially viewed, with 300k in donations versus 1.3million… Definitely in favour of establishing a top-down presence for ApeCoin at IRL events and hackathons.

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i spoke with the ethereum foundation and the team working on account abstraction, and it felt like account abstraction-specific donations should sit as a separate AIP that will just be focused on that initiative. In the meantime, we can still support account abstraction efforts through ETH Global and offering prizes for projects focused on AA

thank you for the support :slight_smile: :slight_smile:

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Hi ApeCoin DAO Community,

Our team has reviewed and discussed @maariab’s AIP Draft and have sent a list of initial questions. We await answers.

Follow this Topic as further updates will be posted here in the comments.

Kind Regards,

-Vulkan

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Hi ApeCoin DAO Community,

@maariab has responded to our questions and has provided consent to share them in this forum for the community.

Questions (click to expand)
  1. Does this relate to or build upon the work previously done in AIP-96 at all? If so, how?

This is a continuation of the public goods efforts started in AIP-96. With AIP-96 we were able to participate in the December ETHSF hackathon which introduced 1,250+ developers from 46 different countries to 39 protocols including ApeCoin [link]. 36 of the 284 projects (~12%) built at ETHSF integrated ApeCoin and applied for our $10k prize pool. All 36 projects from ETHSF can be seen here.

The ETH Global hackathons are an incredible opportunity for us to introduce new developers to the ApeCoin ecosystem, and to encourage the creation of interesting and exciting new applications. This AIP continues funding this initiative for the 2023 calendar year and my hope is that ApeCoin will continue to participate in the ETH Global hackathons for many years to come.

  1. Are there any potential legal risks or considerations associated with the activities of this AIP?

I don’t anticipate any legal risks with this AIP, given that it is essentially an extension of AIP-96 which was passed and funded without any issues. The Foundation has already done KYC / AML on ETH Global, so there should be no issues in working with them again.

  1. Besides the request I see to have at least one Special Council member attend the IRL ETHGlobal Events, is the Ape Foundation expected to engage in any of the steps of the AIP implementation? If so, please specify the step and elaborate how it is expected to work.

I would ask that the Ape Foundation (or working group stewards) help in amplifying each hackathon with 1-2 Tweets, a Discord announcement, and a dedicated topic in the ApeCoin Forum.

Tweets

[Required] Tweet / Retweet registration information for each event. This is the deadline by which developers must apply to participate in the hackathon. ETHGlobal has done a great job of putting together resources for these tweets [link] and I can provide this information to the Foundation for each hackathon.

[Optional] Tweet / Retweet a brief summary of each event. This is content that will be provided by myself or one of the judges.

Discord

[Required] Similar to above, request that registration for each hackathon is announced in the ApeCoin Discord. If necessary, can create a dedicated hackathon channel where these announcements can be shared. I will share the same resource guide as above with the appropriate contact for the Discord.

Forum

[Optional] Similar to above, would ask that hackathon information be shared in the ApeCoin forum in a dedicated topic in the [Help and Resources] section. This should include registration information, event dates, and links for signing up for each hackathon.

  1. Have you or your team identified any additional financial, operational, or brand risks associated with this AIP?

Hackers who are building projects for ApeCoin may want to include our branding in their project. Would request that we allow developers to use the logo for their presentations/projects as needed, noting that this approval would be for the hackathon only and not for commercial use.

  1. I’m not sure if you are familiar with AIP-226, but if both proposals were to pass do you see any opportunities for these two ideas to collaborate at all?

These hackathons should definitely be included in the master calendar that AIP-226 plans to support. Additionally, we may be able to tap into the Local Champions network of AIP-226 to find judges in each hackathon locale.

  1. In your budget, you mentioned “Up to $50k for unexpected operational or prize expenses in 2023…This funding will not be called upon or used unless needed, and at the end of the year any unused proceeds will be released back to the DAO.” Would the idea here to have this portion of the budget remain in the Ecosystem Fund and these potential unexpected expenses be invoiced as needed?

Correct.

  1. How will hackathon judges be selected?

Pillar Tier sponsorship allows us to invite 5 community members to the IRL hackathons. Judges will attend all 3 days of the hackathon and provide feedback and support to developers as they build their projects. Judges will work together to award the $10k in prizes on the final day of the hackathon.

The plan is to leverage the community to bring in 3 judges for the IRL events. We can post about this on Twitter (doesn’t have to be through ApeCoin official account), Discord, and the Forum. Community members who want to participate can nominate themselves by responding directly on those channels. Judges for IRL events must meet these requirements:

  • Must be local to the area where the hackathon is taking place
  • Must be a DAO member and participant
  • Some technical expertise is preferred, as judges will need to support developers with any technical challenges that arise during the hackathon
  • Must be available for the entire event (i.e. can’t just show up on the judging day)
  • Must be available to judge and award prizes

The online events have no limits on the number of judges who participate. Anyone from the community who wants to participate and judge is able to do so by joining the ETHGlobal Discord and following the dedicated #apecoin channel. Judges for the online hackathons should meet the following criteria:

  • Must be a DAO member and participant
  • Should support the developers in the ETHGlobal ApeCoin discord channel with any questions, feedback, etc that arises
  • Must be available to judge and award prizes at the conclusion of the hackathon
  1. Do you provide consent to share these questions with the community in this forum?

Absolutely.

A DAR package is being worked on and upon completion this AIP will move into Administrative Review. Follow this Topic as further updates will be posted here in the comments.

Kind Regards,

-Vulkan

1 Like